DENVER–An effort to enact a constitutional amendment establishing “workers’ rights” in Colorado got a big boost Wednesday, with the state’s Title Board giving a green light to the language voters would decide should the measure make the statewide ballot.
The citizens’ initiative is being pushed by Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute*, a free market think tank in Denver. According to Caldara, the measure is in response to a bill unwinding the more than 80-year-old Labor Peace Act in Colorado, which recently passed out of the Democrat-dominated Colorado Senate.
Senate Bill 5 removes a provision in the law requiring, after an initial simple majority vote by workers to form a union, a second, 75% supermajority vote for that union to take so-called “agency” fees from all employees’ paychecks. Should the bill become law, the initial majority vote would obligate workers to pay the union fees, whether they want to or not. That’s a step too far for Caldara.
“While not perfect, the 75% vote requirement acts as a proxy to protect those employees who don’t want to unionize,” wrote Caldara in a recent Complete Colorado opinion piece. “Believe it or not, some workers don’t want to be forced to join an organization against their will; some don’t want to hand over their hard-earned money to a political group they might disagree with.”
According to an Independence Institute media release, the proposed ballot measure, titled the “Colorado Workers’ Rights Amendment,” seeks to “protect employees from being forced into union membership or paying union dues as a condition of employment.”
Key provisions of the initiative include:
- Ensures that no employee, including part-time and seasonal workers, can be required to join a labor union or pay union dues as a condition of employment.
- Prohibits any deductions from an employee’s paycheck for union fees or political contributions unless explicitly authorized in writing by the employee.
- Guarantees that workers have the right to voluntarily join or financially support a labor organization without employer interference.
- It applies to all new and amended employment contracts entered into after the measure’s effective date.
This is not Caldara’s first rodeo at the ballot, having previously put measures reducing the state income tax in front of voters in 2020 and again in 2022, both of which passed easily. Caldara was also behind Proposition 104, which opened up teachers’ union negotiations with schools districts to the public, and which passed by 70%.
The question that would appear before voters, as approved by the Title Board, reads as follows:
“Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado Constitution concerning labor organization affiliation, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting an employer from requiring any employee to join, resign, or refrain from joining a labor organization, or paying dues or any financial support to a labor organization or its affiliates unless authorized by the employee; and creating a new definition of labor organization for the purposes of this section?”
Constitutional changes require approval by a supermajority 55% plus-one of voters.
*Independence Institute is the publisher of Complete Colorado.
